PHA-Exchange> Cheri Honkala on NAFTA in Montreal

[Jennifer Cox]

Speech by Cheri Honkala, National Coordinator of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, at the closing of this weekend's Tri-National Colloquium:
 
NAFTA After Ten Years: Social Impact and Future Perspectives
 
University of Quebec at Montreal
September 19, 2004

Good Afternoon. I want to begin by thanking the conference organizers for bringing us all together to talk about the impact of NAFTA in our countries over the last ten years, and I want to thank the Alliance for Responsible Trade (ART) for ensuring our involvement.

I have lived in the Belly of the Beast all my life - while trying to raise two sons. I've slept on the streets with my son after losing my job. I've watched factories close, leave and never come back. I've watched people with two car garages lose everything and sleep on my couch in my living room. I've watched International Presidents of unions become unemployed and unable to pay their union dues after 25 years. 

Before I came here, my home state of Minnesota contacted me about the 32,000 jobs and farms that could be lost in Minnesota and North Dakota if CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) is ratified by Congress. And yet I live in a country where it's not enough just to talk about NAFTA - but more the overall future of our country and world. 

Real danger and opportunity exist for all of us in the coming years. We in our country are spending every waking moment to get rid of a man who is responsible for daily crimes against humanity. But regardless of who wins the election and becomes president, we will still have the same neoliberal model that promotes corporate greed over basic human rights and that's why the future really is up to us. Having clean safe accessible drinking water, food to eat, jobs with living wages and education for our children are things that we cannot live without. These are not radical ideas! 

The resistance and the consciousness are growing in each of our countries because of the hard work of all of the people in this room. Yes, the obstacles to organizing and educating the people are huge in the U.S. - but we love our children and the people of our country and we're organizing to take our country back.

You may turn on the television and hear about the war in Iraq, but you won't hear about the war that's being waged within the U.S. for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Yes, there's a resistance that's growing but it needs your help. Let's stop hiding the Faces of the Fallen within the empire itself. Let's start showing the truth that the American Dream is really a nightmare. A nightmare hidden from the world. Let's show that in an affluent country - basic human rights are being denied to its people. 

Nobody can live with this model. And who better to begin to change it than those that live within my country? With true solidarity, another world is possible. A world where its people uphold human rights. 

(Photos of the Colloquium are coming soon; please see www.kwru.org, International Section. Para espanol, vea www.kwru.org, International Section.)

		
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